Last night I went to visit friends and there were a multitude of flying ants in their living room. I was conscripted to run around trying to catch them by their wings. Then I put them in a bowl of water. They would later be stripped of their wings, fried in oil and eaten. You can't knock free protein! I have been missing the hustle and bustle of Christmas - concerts, lights, snow, caroling and hot chocolate... but I guess I'm making new traditions!
I read a very interesting book on the weekend: "When a crocodile eats the sun" by Peter Godwin - a white Zimbabwean now living in the U.S. It was strange to recognize most places in the book; to have met some of the people in the narrative. The book tells the story of his family, but also the story of Zimbabwe up to a few years ago. To be totally honest, before moving here, I didn't have much sympathy for white Africans. I got a very liberal, anti-colonial education at U of T. In reading this book, however, I was really moved to compassion reading about white farmers who had their lands taken over in the early 2000s. Of course everyone agrees that land distribution had to take place - it's obvious. But the way it was done was so... horrific. So dehumanizing. So economically devastating. Imagine - people who had legitimately bought and tilled their land, and employed hundreds or thousands of black workers had to flee and see everything they worked for just demolished and taken over by war veterans, or people who claimed to have seen war but really just wanted to take advantage of an opportunity. It was so disheartening to read of young men who had been adopted, cared for and schooled by some of these farmers then turning on them in violence. My family has joked that I'm racist against white people, and maybe I am a bit, but it's really not funny. Racism in any form is wrong. Abuse of power and oppression is wrong in any situation. One of the major themes in the national media here is that the West only cares about Zimbabwe because they are in solidarity with white farmers; and they want to punish Zimbabwe because of what happened to the whites; they are racist. For myself, I don't really feel a connection with these evicted farmers because we share similar skin tones, but because they're human beings. Just like I feel a connection with Zimbabweans who don't have a similar skin tone as me but are also fellow human beings - who are hungry and mourning and coping in miraculous and marvelous ways. Do you believe me?
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2 comments:
your post was particularly timely for me -- i was looking up nelson mandela speeches on youtube last night, and ended up watching some videos where white south africans discussed the racism they face in south africa today. i approached it thinking, "alright, let's see what these people possibly have to gripe about, how are they going to deny their white privilege" -- that was definitely the lefty u-of-t educated me cropping up -- but they really had some very compelling things to say. (i imagine akin to what you read about in your book)
i still don't know what i think, but i definitely need to explore perspectives beyond the dominant liberal discourse, especially in relation to post-colonial contexts like south africa and zim.
i'm excited that you'll soon be back in toronto!
yes i believe you. i think you are right when you talk about the way you feel towards this issue of color. i miss zimbabwe and when i think of what's happening there, because of all the problems you highlighted, sometimes i wonder when God is going to redeem his people.
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